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Having a tough week at work? Make sure you de-stress — a new review of studies highlights how work stress could be hurting your health.

The review, published in the journal The Lancet and conducted by researchers at the University College London, shows that people with demanding, straining jobs have an overall 23 percent increased risk of heart attack.

The findings are based on job stress and heart attack data from 200,000 people in Europe, who participated in a total of 13 studies between 1985 and 2006. The studies had an average follow-up period of 7.5 years, during which 2,356 heart attacks or heart-related deaths occurred.

Job stress has also been linked with an increased risk of diabetes in women, as well as shorter telomeres (which could potentially speed up aging), past research has suggested.

In the telomere study, published in the journal PLoS ONE earlier this year, Finnish scientists found that people in the study who were affected by the highest levels of job stress were more likely to have short telomeres, and shortened telomeres are linked with aging and possibly even cancer.

Need some help unwinding? Click through the slideshow for some natural stress-relief options.

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• Bring Your Dog To Work

  A recent study in the emInternational Journal of Workplace Health Management/em showed that a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/01/bringing-dog-to-work-stress_n_1391420.html” target=”_hplink”bringing your dog to work/a could help to lower office stress and boost employee satisfaction.

  “Pet presence may serve as a low-cost, wellness intervention readily available to many organizations and may enhance organizational satisfaction and perceptions of support,” study researcher Randolph T. Barker, Ph.D., a professor of management at Virginia Commonwealth University, said in a statement. “Of course, it is important to have policies in place to ensure only friendly, clean and well-behaved pets are present in the workplace.”

  The study, which looked at the pet-friendly company Replacements, Ltd., showed that employees who brought their dogs in to work experienced a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/01/bringing-dog-to-work-stress_n_1391420.html” target=”_hplink”decreases in stress/a throughout the work day. Meanwhile, self-reported stress emincreased/em for people who didn’t bring their dogs, and for those who don’t have dogs.

• Laugh It Up

  If you’re feeling particularly stressed, perhaps it’s time to take a quick YouTube break. A small 1989 study in the emAmerican Journal of the Medical Sciences/em showed thata href=”http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2556917″ target=”_hplink” “mirthful laughter”/a is linked with lower blood levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

  The Mayo Clinic reported that laughter also promotes a href=”http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress-relief/SR00034” target=”_hplink”endorphin release/a in the brain and relaxes the muscles, which are all key for stress relief.

• Grab A Shovel And Some Seeds

  Caregiving is extremely stressful, but a 2008 survey showed that gardening may help to reduce stress among caregivers. The survey, by BHG.com, showed that 60 percent of caregivers feel a href=”http://www.alz.org/national/documents/release_110308_garden.pdf” target=”_hplink”relaxed when they garden/a, the Alzheimer’s Association reported.

  And, Health.com reported on a Netherlands study, suggesting that gardening can help to a href=”http://www.health.com/health/article/0,,20507878_2,00.html” target=”_hplink”lower cortisol levels/a and boost mood among people who had just finished a stressful task. That’s because doing something that requires “involuntary attention” — like sitting back and enjoying nature — helps to replenish ourselves, Health.com reported.

• Crack Open A Book

  Just a href=”http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5070874/Reading-can-help-reduce-stress.html” target=”_hplink”six minutes of reading/a is enough to help you de-stress, the emTelegraph/em reported.

  The study, which was sponsored by Galaxy chocolate, suggested that a href=”http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5070874/Reading-can-help-reduce-stress.html” target=”_hplink”reading was linked with a slower heart rate/a and muscle relaxation. Drinking tea or coffee, listening to music and taking a walk also seemed to help lower stress, according to the emTelegraph/em.

• Call Mom

  Even if she’s not there in person, a call to mom can help lower stress.

  emScientific American/em reported on a study in the journal emProceedings of the Royal Society B/em showing that young girls who a href=”http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2010/05/11/a-phone-call-from-mom-reduces-stress-as-well-as-a-hug/” target=”_hplink”talked to their mothers on the phone/a after completing stressful tasks had decreased cortisol (the stress hormone) in their saliva, and increased oxytocin levels (the bonding hormone).

  The girls who talked to their mothers on the phone had a href=”http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2010/05/11/a-phone-call-from-mom-reduces-stress-as-well-as-a-hug/” target=”_hplink”decreased cortisol/a and increased oxytocin levels compared with young girls who weren’t allowed to contact their mothers at all, emScientific American/em reported — girls who hugged their moms in person had a similar reaction to the phone group.

• Eat Some Chocolate

  Dark chocolate doesn’t only have health benefits for the heart — eating it can also help to a href=”http://www.livescience.com/7974-chocolate-reduces-stress-study-finds.html” target=”_hplink”lower stress/a.

  LiveScience reported on a study illustrating that eating 1.4 ounces of a href=”http://www.livescience.com/7974-chocolate-reduces-stress-study-finds.html” target=”_hplink”dark chocolate/a a day for a two-week period is linked with decreased levels of the stress hormone cortisol. That study was published in 2009 in the journal emProteome Research/em.

  (But of course, chocolate still contains sugar and lots of calories, so make sure you’re eating the chocolate in moderation!)

• Gossip

  Gossip may not be viewed as socially “good,” but it emmight/em have benefits in relieving stress.

  Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, found that a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/17/gossip-stress-exploitation-heart-rate_n_1211207.html” target=”_hplink”gossiping can actually lower stress/a, stop exploitation of others and police others’ bad behavior.

  “Spreading information about the person whom they had seen behave badly tended to a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/17/gossip-stress-exploitation-heart-rate_n_1211207.html” target=”_hplink”make people feel better/a, quieting the frustration that drove their gossip,” study researcher Robb Willer, a social psychologist at UC Berkeley, said in a statement. Willer’s research was published this year in the emJournal of Personality and Social Psychology/em.

  So if something’s bothering you, go ahead and gab — but just make sure you move on so you don’t dwell on the negative emotions!

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